Previous Physical Education Letters

Letters from Mrs. Wavrin

2009 Physical Education at St. Anne’s

Day one of this school year in Physical Education started out with ‘St. Anne’s On The Move This Summer’. I pointed out to the children all of the things that were MOVING at St. Anne’s this summer, even though the students were all gone. There were all the chimney swifts flying in and out of the chimney, the ground squirrels on the playground, and sightings of bald eagles and red tail hawks eating the ground squirrels on the playground. Then the kids told me what they did this summer to be MOVING. At that point the classes went on a fitness walk to check up on all the creatures that had been MOVING at St. Anne’s all summer. Finally, the 4th and 5th graders drew or brought in pictures of themselves MOVING this summer.

Each physical education class on Monday and Wednesday start in the classroom with a 5-10 minute discussion of a nutrition, physical education or health topic, before the classes go outside or into the gym to get MOVING. This year in the classroom, a new topic each week will be introduced with a picture (a picture IS worth a thousand words). MOVING was the theme for week one, and week two of school started with a picture of a cockroach. We then spent the week discussing a study that found that cockroaches that ate ‘junk’ food had health problems. Week 3 focused on the letter E. E in Physical Education at St. Anne’s always means energy. The students learned that their energy comes from carbohydrates and fats and they started looking at food labels. And so it goes in Mrs.Wavrin’s Physical Education classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Fridays are for Fitness Fun. All of the time on Fridays is spent MOVING! If the students have earned their character counts points during the week, then they get to pick what MOVING activity they want to do. The only prerequisite is that the activity must involve LOTS of MOVING. Kickball, volleyball, bocce ball don’t qualify as MOVING activities on Friday. Games such as basketball, handball, trench ball, and tag games get everyone MOVING on Fitness Fun Fridays.

Finally, we have not forgotten about those Blue Zones that we studied all of last year. In the news has been Albert Lea, one year into its re-make as a future Blue Zone, and also in the news, has been Blue Zone author Dan Buettner, who gave the opening speech for this year’s Minnesota Teachers’ Conference. St. Anne’s may not be ‘in the news’ yet, with its Blue Zone, but it may well be in the future.

Martha J. Wavrin